Nanci France-Vaz

As a progressive realist painter, my intent is to create narrative paintings that are psychological with a strong human presence of mood and character. Storytelling on canvas with an actor, costumes, environment, and lighting has kept me very passionate about my work. Each subject has a unique presence. My greatest desire, as a painter, is to achieve the narrative style and lighting of a modern cinematographer with the classical style and techniques of the old masters.

With the invention of photography, many works are frozen in time without personality or atmospheric mood. They are rendered to look like the photo. For me, I love the paint quality of texture, and the thick and thin paint layers with brushstrokes. In my work, I incorporate life painting from my models, use of photographic reference, and trained visual memory to create the character, mood, and environment in the same way the old masters did and living masters do

“ As a painter, my greatest desire is to communicate humanity via the narrative. In a socially detached world, my hope is to draw the viewer in, like a cinematographer, by evoking the psychological moments of my subject.

Nanci France-Vaz was born in Carroll Gardens Brooklyn and graduated School Of Visual Arts in New York with a BFA in 3d Animation for film and special effects. In 2006, she finished her studies in classical portrait and figure painting with Michael Grimaldi, Dan Thompson, and Paul W. McCormack. She considers herself a Modern Imaginative Portrait/Figurative artist that fuses classical and contemporary realism. The artist’s cinematic style incorporates her acting/dance background into her narrative paintings, which evoke human presence. Her awards include the Len G. Everett Memorial Award, International ARC Salon 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2019, figurative finalist, Colonel George J. Morales Award, the John Collins Memorial Award, and 3rd place Portrait Society of America Members Showcase Exhibition. Ms France-Vaz painting of Lloyd Price was accepted into the permanent collection of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her paintings hang in private collections.